FAQ

  1. What advantage does your organisation have in partnering with ONESTAGETOSPACE?
  2. Our vision?
  3. How is ONESTAGETOSPACE different?
  4. How are the ground operations different?
  5. Are the effects of Artificial Gravity not more dangerous than weightlessness?
  6. Can ONESTAGETOSPACE launch from the sea?
  7. How did ONESTAGETOSPACE start?

What advantage does your organisation have in partnering with ONESTAGETOSPACE?

People are drawn to exciting projects and because what we do is technically difficult to accomplish, our programme will necessarily run for the better part of a decade and more. If executed well, it will have the multi-decade life typical of a civilian airliner production run. As we move along, the organisation and network will get a higher profile and external societal dynamic. Associated with the life of our company, a whole list of milestones, firsts and associated event opportunities will show up where your brand can get good exposure or just be part of the fun of doing something potentially transformational.

But if you are less interested in events and want to build up a long-term people or network relationship, associating with or sponsoring our project might also fit your corporate needs or ideals. ONESTAGETOSPACE is an engineering project and might very well have a need for your products, know how and services. We will become a community of people, a broad network of client/vendor and partnership relationships, talented individuals with a strong interest in engineering, the sciences and project management of complex projects. Most of them a blend of creativity, talent, eagerness to excel and expertise. Fresh, passionate and knowledgeable. The skills, tools they pick up and relationships they build on our project are transferable to any future challenge. Maybe budding partnerships and spin offs will find their seed within our company. If your company wants to expose your products, technologies, solutions, processes and brands or even job offers to such a stable and growing community of individuals with an interest in state of the art technology, than it might be interesting to partner up.

As adults we still ask ourselves the question: what if? What if we can build a vehicle that does all that? What if we really can go to all of those places at a more reasonable cost; ask the big question regarding life; or build that second human presence. What if you could work on such a project or just help? Young children and ambitious talented graduates are even less inhibited to ask these questions. They and ONESTAGETOSPACE thrive on the possibility of moving the needle forward. Maybe you or your company does so too.

Our vision?

Start from what you want to do and where you want to go. Never take the status quo as an immutable fact.

Low cost access to deep space and other planetary surfaces, is enabled by creating a versatile multi-role platform, our dream vehicle. The current de facto approach is building a complex meccano of vehicles, each with a specialized function. ONESTAGETOSPACE has a much cheaper configuration for a vehicle that can perform all of these tasks. The Space Shuttle, impressive as it was, had some flaws: it wasn’t reusable (by any useful stretch), it had wings, it used Hydrogen propulsion, it needed a runway, it was not capable of loitering in space for long times and it was not an interplanetary vehicle with surface mobility. Eliminate these flaws and you have a brilliant platform. It turns out to be quite possible. All the lofty dreams and ambitions that you have for yourself, your community or your organisation and more importantly for humanity and life itself, stretching all the way from the practical to the existential, enter into the realm of the achievable.

How is ONESTAGETOSPACE different?

We are the only company starting from a Single-Stage-To-Orbit vehicle fit for use on the Moon and MARS, the ultimate wish list item for any crewed MARS mission planner, and back engineering it to also make it a very capable reusable launcher in an Earth environment; simply by adding a drop tank. More elaborately:

How are the ground operations different?

Imagine a crew hatch towering only 18 meters above the ground without a launch tower anywhere near. These heights are easily accessible by (motorized) cranes. No tall launch tower required. This is possible because MARVEL can be operated in SSTO mode, without drop tanks. If you do want to add drop tanks, and get a much improved performance, you dig a vertical Pit, something that can be done quite easily, without requiring a large rocket exhaust or flame trench. Pit launching uses a pit to hold the drop tank in place, sort of like a nuclear ballistic missile silo does. The Upper stage sticking out above this pit, can use its landing legs to support its own weight and that of the drop tanks beneath it. Launch gantry operations are also an option especially if it speeds up lowering the drop tanks into the pit. Both parts are fueled on the pad. If desired for safety, a collar can be put around the base of the Marvel upper stage, sealing off the pit.

On Earth, launching without drop tanks is not an option for most missions, but on MARS, as a MARS SSTO, the vehicle is exquisitely designed for it, no further infrastructure needed.

Are the effects of Artificial Gravity not more dangerous than weightlessness?

No. Weightlessness is debilitating. This is clearly visible when astronauts return to Earth. They have trouble helping themselves, and this can be dangerous when landing unsupported on Mars after a long trip. On the ISS, centrifuges for crew are not integrated because it is a state of the art crewed microgravity platform and has huge value as such for all kinds of research. Thanks to long duration crew stays on MIR and ISS we now have data that proves that some effects cannot be counteracted by physical exercise or medication. The way the immune system gets suppressed and intracranial pressure builds up to the point where it damages eyesight, are not pleasant perspectives for any astronaut going on long duration missions. Pressure garments are ineffective in preventing these medical conditions. Yet the solution has been experimented with on Earth over many decades (and at one point even during the Gemini missions).

The solution is providing a force on the astronaut that closely resembles gravity by spinning them around in a large wheel or habitat. Due to the rotation, their bodies get pressed down against the floor by the surrounding cabin air (which has weight) and the floor presses upward against them. Counteracting forces create the effect of feeling gravity. Blood will probably flow like in Earth gravity and the immune system might behave normal again. It also turns out that building a MARVEL DSRB and creating AG costs the same or less as doing detailed studies and simulations over many years. MARVEL allows you to compare the effects of different intensities of artificial gravity and how the crew adepts to the Coriolis effects. We could finally study what amount of Artificial Gravity, or amount of natural of which planetary surfaces are enough to keep crews healthy indefinitely and close to home before we make the dangerous and long trip. Past studies on Earth indicate that crew can easily adapt to the Coriolis forces of the one G environment of a MARVEL DSRB. But the best place to experiment with it will always be in space. Furthermore, gravity has all sorts of benefits. It makes life support systems, plumbing, growing crops much more reliable and maintenance and repair become easier, but the health and comfort of the crew remain the most important.

One MARVEL DSRB can put to rest all these nagging questions. At the same time, a free-floating microgravity lab can be kept near a MARVEL DSRB and operate in tandem. Experiments are prepared by crew, run autonomously in the free floating facility, returned to the DSRB for study and prepared for transport to Earth. Best of all, even if AG does turn out to be dangerous, which many researchers deem very unlikely, the vehicle MARVEL, as a universal platform, still offers all of the other benefits mentioned.

Can ONESTAGETOSPACE launch from the sea?

Yes, and it doesn’t need a converted oil rig platform like the company SEA LAUNCH did. Our vehicle is naturally buoyant and self-righting in an aquatic environment, just like some modern wind power mills in the North Sea. Launching from international waters, with all the benefits it grants, is possible. You simply need to tow our vehicle out to sea in a protective canister while keeping an eye out for adverse weather conditions. The main advantages are the ability to sit right on the equator -for added performance- and not requiring any launch pad (which usually have a busy schedule and are expensive to build and operate).

We prefer land based operations but the option exists if the need arises.

How did ONESTAGETOSPACE start?

Being deeply disappointed as a student to see the X-33 project fail, an unwavering passion for all things Science&Tech&Exploration&Mars (S.T.E.M.), and 20 years of failed efforts to get into the European Space Industry. But this could turn out to have been a good thing. Maybe it is just because I didn’t succeed in joining, while studying all the variant mission requirements, launcher, propulsion and materials options for many years, that I was able to join all these bits and pieces -invented by far smarter people- together and come up with a clean slate design. Exposed to the operations and processes within larger international groups in different fields (banking, telecom and insurance), I also learned and developed ideas about what good service, management, people, financial and business decisions are and are not.

But my true passion is undoubtedly finding a way to get into Deep Space. Finally, reading the books by Robert Zubrin from the MARS SOCIETY, and seeing him evolve as a thought leader in promoting his MARS architecture, I had all the inspiration needed to convince myself that a concentrated effort by an individual can set a process in motion that results in tangible changes. You and me are not alone with these ideas. Entire generations of engineers have been looking to get the chance to build a coherent concept as ours. We have that good concept now. It is time to build the required organisation and build it. You just need to start, find the coalition of the willing, team up with (interdisciplinary) experts,  and work hard. Join. Add life to this worthy endeavour.